As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses continually seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users of information is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems may be included as elements of a storage network. A storage network can be considered as a specialized network of storage devices coupled to one or more data servers. Serial Attached SCSCI (SAS) is a storage network interface and communications protocol for storage transactions. Serial Attached SCSI is characterized by storage networks having a serial, point-to-point architecture and improved data integrity, as compared with parallel SCSI storage networks. Because data transfer in a Serial Attached SCSI network occurs on a serial basis, data transfer rates for Serial Attached SCSI are faster than data transfer rates associated with parallel data transfer architectures. Both SAS storage devices and Serial ATA (SATA) storage devices may be physically coupled as storage endpoints in a Serial Attached SCSI storage network. SAS drives include dual ports. In contrast, Serial ATA drives include a single port. The dual port functionality of an SAS drive supports failover protocols in the storage network because of the ability to connect the SAS drive to multiple edge expanders in the Serial Attached SCSI network. Despite having only a single port, Serial ATA drives are sometimes preferred over SAS drives because of the relative cost of Serial ATA drives as compared with SAS drives.
The Serial Attached SCSI provides for communication with Serial ATA drives through the Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol. As with most tunneling constructs in communications protocols, the Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol provides for the placement of Serial ATA commands and data within Serial Attached SCSI communications. Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol does not, however, support the use of dual paths to a single Serial ATA drive. Despite the support for Serial ATA drives in Serial Attached SCSI networks, the functionality of a Serial Attached SCSI storage network with one or more Serial ATA drives is diminished by the inability of the Serial ATA drive to support dual port communications.